"On the cusp of every autumn for the last 21 years, the Camden International Film Festival becomes the center of the nonfiction world, offering a kind of community campfire in the midst of the seasonal showcase sprawl (Telluride, Toronto, New York), its focus on a more intimate, artist-led level of engagement in the crisp air of coastal Maine, far from the madding crowds (and industry noise)."
"The community vibe might best have been embodied by the U.S. premiere of Powwow People, a glorious immersion into the sound, color and movement called the powwow. Visionary filmmaker Sky Hopinka is known for his ecstatic abstract imagery and its deeply textured weave of cultural DNA that draws in and reflects forward themes at the heart of Indigenous life in the United States - in particular matters of land and language."
"The Wisconsin native, a member of the Ho-Chunk tribe, has made a number of shorts over the past decade, but Powwow People is only his second feature, after 2019's Malni - Towards The Ocean, Towards The Shore. Unlike much of his work it's in observational mode, bearing verite witness to a 2023 powwow at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle."
Camden International Film Festival returns each autumn as a central nonfiction gathering that prioritizes intimate, artist-led engagement in coastal Maine. This year's festival took place in Camden and Rockland after years marked by COVID, a hurricane, and leadership change, and featured one fewer venue but an added screening day and a Wednesday kickoff aimed at local audiences. The festival emphasized community atmosphere, exemplified by the U.S. premiere of Powwow People, an immersive verité film capturing a 2023 powwow at Seattle's Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. Filmmaker Sky Hopinka compressed three days of performances into a single-day cinematic experience, foregrounding Indigenous themes of land, language, and cultural movement.
Read at Filmmaker Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]